Keith Earls tore up the script prepared for Brian O'Driscoll's 100th appearance for his country to give Ireland every chance of winning their sixth Triple Crown in eight seasons.

Everything was geared up for the Irish captain to celebrate a century of caps but his wing stole his thunder to leave Wales needing to beat Italy to avoid the wooden spoon. Earls scored two of Ireland's three tries but none of the Irish contingent in the 81,000 Croke Park crowd cared that the spotlight shifted so dramatically to the Munster flyer.

O'Driscoll had to settle for the stirring start given his big day before he was upstaged by Earls and man-of-the-match Tomas O'Leary, scorer of the third Irish try.

Powerhouse: Keith Earls dives over to score the first try

O'Driscoll was not complaining after reception fit for a Roman emperor. His team held back to allow him to soak up the adulation given him when he appeared on the field with torches spitting fire, a blanket of green flags shrouding the terracing and both sets of supporters standing to attention in his honour.

The Great Man then proceeded to play a major part in the destruction of Wales with a hand in two of the Irish tries.

O'Driscoll said: 'It is a massive honour to play 100 times for your country. The reception I received was magnificent, something I shall not forget.'

Ireland's performance would have been near flawless but for the wayward kicking of Jonathan Sexton, whose lack of composure must have surprised and disappointed his predecessor Ronan O'Gara, sitting on the bench.

But the new fly-half ended his day in triumph with a drop goal that left Wales no chance to hit back.

The only danger presented by Wales throughout the match came from the ever reliable Stephen Jones, who kicked all their points from penalties.

They did threaten to disrupt O'Driscoll's big day when Jones kicked Wales into the lead from a penalty in the 10th minute.

But the turning point came midway through the first half when Wales full-back Lee Byrne was yellow-carded for slapping down the ball and not releasing.

In the 10 minutes the Lion was in the sin-bin, Ireland scored two uncoverted tries.

First, Earls hugged a superb pass from O'Driscoll to beat off Stephen Jones's challenge for a thrilling try, and almost before the crowd had finished a verse of the Fields of Athenry, scrum-half O'Leary was dismissing Leigh Halfpenny's tackle attempt to score a second try.

O'Driscoll said: 'For those 10 minutes we played intelligently. We didn't try to play too much rugby but when the time arose we took our chances and weren't afraid to throw it around.'

From that moment, the contest was dead, despite Sexton's poor kicking.

O'Driscoll and O'Leary set up Earls for his second try and despite Stephen Jones's metronomic kicking keeping alive Wales' slim hopes, Sexton delivered the coup de grace with a drop goal just before the end.

At the whistle, O'Driscoll was happy to play second fiddle to his younger team-mates, hugging his colleagues and leaving the scene to rapturous applause.